Excerpt from: [The Noble Eightfold Path: The Doctrine of Dharma] (1937)
Life is sacred in Nature. To slay is to accept Karma having impeded a life in its quest for the eternal. To slay is to remove an opportunity for growth, and one who impedes a spirit in its search for eternity is a greater sinner than any other. The harmless life is the life of the Buddhist. Not only must he refrain from slaying the bodies of things, but he must also be aware lest he slay the hopes of man, lest he slay an ideal or kill out a good virtue in another through thoughtlessness or unkindness. For the lesser creatures - the animals and plants and minerals - he must also show love and affection. As he becomes more highly advanced, he must not slay anything, but must live upon the fruits of things and use them only after they have reach maturity - the point at which they otherwise would begin to decay of their own accord.
That which belongs to another the Buddhist shall have no desire for, and the crime is not only in taking but in desiring that which belongs to another. The true Buddhist counts the sin of theft an exceedingly great one, as it proves the presence of the demon of desire, which is the most terrible of all sins. Not only shall he respect his friend's belongings, but he shall not steal from his honor, hope, or any moral possession, not shall he covet the heart or the mind of the soul of any other thing, nor shall he steal from the animal or the plant or any living thing.
This again shows desire, and is listed with the great sins. It is here also that the Buddhist emphasizes the fact that a sin committed in the mind is as great an offense as one committed in the body, and the desire for sin is a proof of the teachings of the great Buddha that desire is the source of sin.
To the Buddhist laity there must be no prevarication. The Buddhists are taught that a lie goes forth into Nature as an evil spirit where it fights with the reality of the incident or condition, and it is a sin that there be war anywhere in the universe and the one who tells the falsehood assails the reality and places stumbling blocks in the way of other souls.
It is said that drink turns man over to his enemy, the desires; therefore he shall never take into himself anything which makes difficult his control of himself. His drink shall be water, and his food be of the simplest possible nature, for simplicity is a symbol of wisdom and complication is a symbol of ignorance.
The Buddhist is expected to control his life and to choose certain periods for all of the habits of life. He is expected to show his control over himself by formulating certain periods and laws and adhering to them absolutely. When he departs from these he shows that he is attacked again by his enemy, desire. The common people, under normal conditions, do not attempt to follow any except of the first five commandments. The rest apply to the clergy, to the students and disciples and those who have assumed the responsibility of growth and are preparing themselves for the sacred Middle Path.
This is enforced that he may never deify his personality nor seek for any adornment or ornament other than virtue, which is the perfect ornament and the perfect jewel. He shall seek to adorn and glorify only his spirit. He shall preserve and take care of his body, but never glorify it above its human estate.
He is ever to be humble, realizing that in humility is safety in those things which deal with the spirit. He recognizes egotism as the deadly enemy of growth, and that pride indeed goeth before a fall. Only the perfect Buddha is permitted a throne; all others must kneel at his feet. Only perfect wisdom can be exalted with justice to all in the land.
He is never to go into the presence of those things which excite his senses or which tend to involve him in material things, for the glamor of worldliness is apt to make him forget its falseness and unreality. He is to remain alone and quiet, meditating upon great things, free from involvement of sense.
The Buddhist candidate is seeking liberation from possession, that he may learn to value only the possession of wisdom; therefore it is against his will and his law to add to a thing from which he is seeking to separate himself.